The Line Between Love & Hate
by Claire D'Aubigne
Summary: 50 one sentence IoriKyo drabbles other pairings are implied. Obviously shounen ai... rating may change, but nothing too explicit.


**01; comfort**  
It shouldn't have been comforting to know that Kyo was always willing to fight with him, even though fighting wasn't technically what Iori wanted to be doing.

**02; kiss**  
The first time they kissed, it was an accident; one had consumed copious amounts of alcohol and the other wasn't honorable enough to push him away.

**03; soft**  
The result of Kyo's constant teasing that Iori wouldn't know gentle if it smacked him in the face was that when Iori finally got tired of it, Kyo got the softest kiss Iori was capable of giving.

**04; pain**  
There was a thin line between hate and love, pleasure and pain, and no matter how how close they came, they couldn't cross those lines.

**05; potatoes**  
"But I don't know anything personal about you at all," Kyo insisted, and Iori finally shut him up with "I hate potatoes."

**06; rain**  
The rain wasn't a favorite with either man, given the circumstances, until the day Kyo slipped on a wet storm drain and dragged the hapless Iori down with him; as the older man's lips pressed against his own, he couldn't find it within himself to hate the rain anymore.

**07; chocolate**  
Kissing Kyo always reminded Iori of eating warm chocolate: sickly sweet and smooth, but addictive and ultimately satisfying.

**08; happiness**  
Both men learned quickly that happiness could be expressed in different ways, and that just because the sentiment wasn't spoken didn't mean that it wasn't there.

**09; telephone**  
Kyo was surprised to find that after sex with Iori became a regular thing, he had more influence than he gave himself credit for-- this became obvious when the telephone quietly appeared on the kitchen wall after Kyo pointed out that he couldn't give Iori any warning that he was coming over.

**10; ears**  
Kyo's legs were locked around Iori's waist and Iori's hands were braced on the stall by Kyo's head, and maybe the nightclub bathroom wasn't the best place to do this but Kyo's whispered warning of _someone could be listening_ fell on deaf ears.

**11; name**  
Iori never said as much, but the first thing he thought when he saw Kyo was _remember my name because you'll be screaming it later_.

**12; sensual**  
Kyo thought that Iori was born knowing how to be sensual; everything from his voice to his posture bled sensuality without the other man even realizing what he was doing.

**13; death**  
Kyo blurted, "I thought you were dead," and Iori responded with, "calm down, Kusanagi; I won't die until I kill you."

**14; sex**  
The sex was good in the beginning because it was forbidden; in the end, it was acceptance that made it great.

**15; touch**  
Iori hated to admit it but sometimes it was Kyo's touch-- gentle or harsh, it didn't matter-- that brought him back to sanity.

**16; weakness**  
As fighters, they were required to recognize the other's weakness and use it; as rivals, they exploited it; as lovers, they protected it.

**17; tears**  
It wasn't until Kyo was very old and on the brink of death that he realized the only thing he and Iori hadn't exchanged at one point or another was their tears.

**18; speed**  
Kyo preferred to get it done quickly and go at it again, no matter what he was doing; it wasn't until he got to know Iori better that he learned to slow down and savor what he was given.

**19; wind**  
Kyo's house wouldn't have burned if the wind hadn't caught at exactly the right time and fed the fire, spreading it from the neighboring house; oddly enough, it was his worst enemy that came to his aid… then laughed because Kyo hadn't found a way to control the blaze.

**20; freedom**  
Freedom was an illusion for both of them; they pretended to do what they pleased, but in the end, what they'd been told their whole lives made the decision for them.

**21; life**  
Life wasn't worth living without a deep, dark secret, and the secret infatuation with his rival was Iori's.

**22; jealousy**  
Their arrangement wasn't exclusive by any means, and they both agreed and accepted it, but it didn't stop Kyo from occasionally waiting at Iori's house until he came home, reeking of a woman or sometimes another man, then shoving him into the shower and forcing him to remember just which relationship had the highest priority.

**23; hands**  
Iori was secretly obsessed with Kyo's hands, baby soft from wearing gloves and not doing much physical labor, and cool to the touch regardless of what he'd been doing.

**24; taste**  
Iori tasted faintly of the cigarettes he'd smoke on occasion-- and Kyo bitched about the taste-- but every time he kissed someone else, Kyo found he missed the flavor.

**25; devotion**  
Kyo thought it was funny that Iori was devoted to telling himself that he'd kill Kyo one day, when he'd had dozens of opportunities that he never took and had even gotten Kyo out of trouble sometimes, just so he'd be saved for a later that looked like it'd never come.

**26; forever**  
Kyo acted like he'd live forever, and Iori knew better than to think he'd make it half as long, but sometimes when they were in bed he dared to hope he would.

**27; blood**  
The city burned around them and they thought they'd never see each other alive again but they did, and the resulting kiss was harsh and bruising and had the coppery taste of blood, but the only thing that mattered was that they were able to meet in secret again.

**28; sickness**  
Kyo's obsession with Iori grew, slowly taking over his life like a disease, starting with mild annoyance and then spreading until Iori was all he could think about.

**29; melody**  
They kept it their secret-- the song for the both of them, the biggest collaborative effort between the two of them, with lyrics by Kyo and melody by Iori.

**30; star**  
Kyo had made an offhand comment about the stars being constant, thinking that maybe he should write a poem about it, and Iori ruined the moment with the comment, "The stars you're looking at have probably burned out by now, since it takes starlight so long to get here."

**31; home**  
Iori had never really grasped the meaning of 'home' before: the daily annoyance of having someone irritate you the second you walked in the door, and the fact that you actively did nothing to rectify the situation.

**32; confusion**  
Kyo knew there was a problem when he looked at Yuki in confusion, wondering what he was doing with her when Iori was just as available.

**33; fear**  
Iori talked in his sleep, and this is how Kyo discovered that his lover wasn't afraid of dying, but dying out of his mind and with no control was his worst fear.

**34; lightning/thunder**  
Iori laughed for ten solid minutes when Kyo was caught off guard, startled by a particularly loud thunderclap-- and oh, Kyo hated him for it-- but he made up for it later.

**35; bonds**  
Kyo wondered once why Iori always tied him up but he never did the same; Iori had responded by giving him a shiny pair of handcuffs the next day, offering his wrists with a challenging smirk on his face that just seemed to say _go ahead, if you think you can_.

**36; market**  
The day Kyo was officially 'off the market'-- that is, his wedding day-- was the day Iori left town, eyes straight ahead, silently vowing to never come back to that city again.

**37; technology**  
Even if K' was supposed to be a clone of sorts, Iori knew the most important differences between the original and the reproduction, and K' never forgot that he was Iori's second choice-- technology couldn't accomplish everything, after all.

**38; gift**  
Someone once said that the best gifts were the ones that came from the heart-- so why did Iori walking away on his wedding day feel more like a curse than a gift?

**39; smile**  
Iori had a secret soft spot for foreign romantic comedies, and even though Kyo teased him mercilessly he'd always watch them, because it was the only time he'd see Iori smile without looking slightly bloodthirsty.

**40; innocence**  
Neither man would have considered himself innocent before the start of their arrangment, but at the end of it neither could deny what he'd learned from the other and how it had forced him to grow up a little.

**41; completion**  
They were two halves of a circle-- night and day, flighty and focused, light and dark-- but they'd ignored the obvious until it was too late.

**42; clouds**  
Kyo was shocked to find that Iori liked to eat outside, but he'd never laid in the grass and watched the clouds go by; Iori retaliated by saying he was surprised Kyo could sit still long enough to see anything in them.

**43; sky**  
"Admit it Kyo, you're gay," Iori said, and Kyo replied with "yeah, and you own a great big cotton candy castle in the sky."

**44; heaven**  
If there was such a place as heaven, Yuki surely deserved to go there, Kyo thought as he stared at the grave and thought of her and Iori and how things used to be.

**45; hell**  
The years when Iori had left the city were Kyo's personal hell; after Yuki died, he'd spend as much time as he could hunting for his old lover but to no avail.

**46; sun**  
A brave child had once approached Iori on the street, and he was too surprised to do anything but watch as she patted his hand and left a sticker there-- "some sunshine, mister," she'd said, and the sticker told Iori it was time to go home.

**47; moon**  
It'd been five years since he'd seen that crescent moon jacket, and Kyo stared for a full minute before he could convince himself that the skinny man wearing it was indeed Iori, and he was actually back in town.

**48; waves**  
When Iori set eyes on his rival again for the first time in years, he was surprised to find that the waves of hatred and then overwhelming lust hadn't lessened in the time he'd been away.

**49; hair**  
Kyo never thought he'd have a hangover just for an excuse to feel a soothing hand run through his hair.

**50; supernova**  
It never actually grew to be love, but the feelings they had for the other was like a supernova-- explosive and dangerous to ignore.


End file.
